On swords, violence, and victim culture.

[faithinfire]

This is a slightly cleaned-up version of something that I wrote earlier tonight on 750words and decided I wanted to share. I'm not sure how controversial it may turn out to be, but it's several 2ps on several vexed subjects. Swords, self-defence, and why I don't like the way I was raised.

*****

Comments

[camelfeathers]

You think and write with extraordinary clarity. I love this because I know you to be absolutely right, even though my mind has never hashed it out this far.

A piece of writing caught my eye as I was preparing for class on the aspects of civilization-- a list of ideals that civilizations have in common, and one was the subjugation of women. And i thought, IS THAT TRUE??? Odd that you wrote this and I saw it today.

Plus, my new favorite phrase is 'Use Violence Responsibly.' :)

Love you, sis.

[faithinfire]

Thank you, sis. <3 Love you, too.

a list of ideals that civilizations have in common, and one was the subjugation of women.

I have a horrible feeling that that is true, and probably for hideous biologically-derived reasons. Women are valuable because they bear children, so women must be kept safe, so the best way to keep them safe is to lock them up and not let them do anything that might threaten their value as breeding stock. The logic is easy enough to understand, but that doesn't make it okay, or mean that we shouldn't move beyond it - especially in our current age, when the last thing we need is more breeding going on!

Plus, my new favorite phrase is 'Use Violence Responsibly.' :)

Bumper sticker, perhaps? ;)

[camelfeathers]

bumpersticker :)

[faithinfire]

...I love you. <3

[aiwendel]

mmm that's why I took up ninjitsu at uni... unfortunately I didn't persevere with it and don't remember any of the moves any more. Which is a shame as there were some awesome ones that require very little strength (you use the aggressors weight against them), and can relatively easily get them into a painful lock or hold.

... of course in ninjitsu the moves all end with 'and this is how you kill them' which was slightly less practical advice!

You might enjoy a marshall art like that that gives you good self defence skills that don't require a sword - of course playing with a sword is probably more fun though!

I've only had one time where I couldn't run away, and realised I was in danger...

[faithinfire]

It's funny - I never really wanted to do eastern martial arts, but the chance to learn to use a sword, western-historical style, was something I couldn't pass up! And having taken it up, I find it really interesting how much it's teaching me about myself. I might well go on to do some kind of bare-handed martial art at some point now, though, when I have the money at any rate...

[lepaggoth]

Interesting post.

I'd like to think that knowledge of violence's nature and being able to control it, might also help with moments of blind rage, I mean, so that such moments would not come, or could be controlled. However, I don't know if that would work for real, or would someone with tendency to flip into blind rage just be more dangerous with knowledge how to hurt.

[faithinfire]

See, this is exactly the point I'm reaching for - that everyone thinks in terms of "oh, crazy people who do violent things are scary" and makes the concept of violence Other, and thus they remain afraid of it. You fear the unfamiliar, because you don't understand how to predict it or react to it. Would people who suffer "blind rage" be better able to control it if everyone was trained to fight? I don't know. But I bet you they would learn to control it a lot better, if it became socially normal that a person who lashes out in rage can expect to find himself humiliatingly pinned to the floor by the other people in the room.

I like the idea of a world in which the capacity for violence doesn't give people any false sense of superiority over others. And an effective way to achieve that, I suspect, is not by trying to stamp that capacity out of humanity, but simply by ensuring that we all know how to put down that drunken idiot or optimistic hold-up artist, or indeed would-be rapist. How often, after all, will anyone keep doing

[anglonemi]

Interesting thought I just had: given the outcome of the Justin Lee Collins case, and the move to include verbal and psychological abuse in definitions of domestic violence for legal purposes, does someone lashing out verbally as a substitute (either learned or ingrained) for physical expression of strong emotion (regardless of outcome, I can't throw for shit and have arm muscles like wet spaghetti) require the same response or is that transition from verbal to physical an escalation of conflict?
Example: The bit in the Abyss where they put the gaffa tape over the female engineer's mouth, or any movie scene where a "hysterical" (usually female) character gets slapped to "bring them back to reality"...

[faithinfire]

That's a good question and off the cuff, I'm not sure what I think! My instinctive, first-response thought is that a physical response to a verbal assault does count as escalation, but that's one that could clearly get awkward on a case-by-case basis... not sure!

[dragoness_e]

As an American here (and this makes a difference because of legal differences between our countries) with parents who grew up hunting and fishing, I was raised to be comfortable with firearms. I was also raised in the usual woman's culture of low-grade fear. HOWEVER...

I got over that fear after I learned to shoot and started carrying a handgun regularly. I never had to use it, or even threaten someone with it, or even let anyone know I was carrying (except maybe that one time I scared off a peeping tom by loudly racking the slide on an automatic), but just the knowledge that if someone came after me with intent to harm, I could f***ing kill them... made the world a less fearful place.

[faithinfire]

Definitely interesting insights, thank you! I think your experience definitely counts as a vote in favour of being prepared and able to defend yourself...

(except maybe that one time I scared off a peeping tom by loudly racking the slide on an automatic)

This made me cheer out loud and then burst out laughing. You = BADASS. <3